Lucie wandered, a little aimlessly. She had forgotten what her plan for that day had been, and her feet wouldn't tell her which direction to move in. Over the bridge had been a good start, but after that, she hesitated.

She probably should go back to the mines and get more stone for her coop. That would be the sensible thing to do. But even thinking about the mines made her heart ache, not to say anything about the complaints her back and shoulders would have.

But she needed a chicken coop, so she was just going to have to grit her teeth and force herself into the dark, musky, cavernous, icky, wet, disgusting place full of Yoba knows what.

"Lucie?"

Ah, a distraction. Excellent.

Lucie looked up towards the sound of the voice, and cursed under her breath as she saw Haley's grin, next to Alex who was purposefully not looking at her. He tossed the ball in his hands high in the air, soaring towards the cloud splattered blue. Lucie groaned to herself, but walked towards the two of them with a smile.

"Hi," she greeted cheerily. After all, she didn't know anyone here, so resentment wasn't going to help her out here. But hitting that stupid ball out of Alex's hands would be so easy and so satisfying - be nice.

Haley leant forwards on the fence and her grin turned into more of a smirk.

"What's going on with you two? I mean you said nothing, but…" she dragged out the final word in a way that suggested so much more after the but. Lucie couldn't help but roll her eyes slightly.

"His work is on the way to the mines and I literally live in the middle of nowhere," Lucie countered. "It made sense to wait for each other."

"You took him home last night too." This time the accusation came from Alex. Lucie felt the sting in the words on her face. Lucie slowly let her gaze roll over to Alex, feeling her anger bubble in her gut and flame in her eyes. She let her eye contact linger on Alex before shutting her eyes and turning back to Haley.

"You can do better." Were Lucie's parting words as she strode away from the two of them.


Shane let the guilt swallow him whole.

He stacked the shelves as he had every single day since he'd started working in the JoJo Mart, but his mind was elsewhere. It was conjuring up a thousand images of what Jas's face must have been like when he had been so foolish that morning. Even if he wanted to die, he didn't need anyone to know that. He didn't need to hurt Jas anymore - hadn't the kid suffered enough? Yet, that had been exactly what he had done that morning. Jas still had the knife of grief sticking through her heart, still there from her parents' death and still ever-so-sharp, and he'd grabbed the handle and twisted it.

He was out of things to stack and so for a brief moment, the grief ebbed. But then, he had more things to shove on to more shelves, and so the guilt rose like bile once more.


Lucie emptied the wheelbarrow of stone into the compound, and swiped the sweat from her forehead. Though the air was cool, her face was red, defiant against the blue of the spring morning. She'd pushed the sleeves of her white thermal up past her elbows, and her arms shared the same red-raw look, the hairs raised, but sweat lingering on her skin. Her heavy breaths danced in the morning air in front of her.

Stretching her shoulders with a grunt, she pushed open Robin's door and called to the woman herself.

"Please, dear Yoba, tell me that's enough stone to build a fucking coop." Lucie slumped slightly against the wooden doorframe, not prepared to actually enter the building and face the rush of heat that would shiver through her.

Robin smiled at her, and shimmied past her to look at the collection of dust and stone by her shed. She frowned and narrowed her eyes.

"It's probably enough." She admitted, returning to the inside of the shop. "It's definitely enough to get started with. If you transfer the 4000 now, I can get started working on it tomorrow morning."

Lucie grinned happily, and then the grin faded when she thought of the cost. She had the money, but barely. Looks like she was going to be just a little bit leaner for the next couple of weeks - her mother would have been overjoyed, she always thought Lucie could do with losing a couple of pounds.

"You're bleeding me dry, Robin," Lucie teased, sending the money flying far, far away from her own earnings, and into Robin's nest. "But you said it'll be done in three days?"

"I did. I work fast."

"Brilliant. I'm going to go…find some wild onions to eat. Or a turnip."

"Turnips don't grow in the wild, Lucie."

"They might!" Lucie retorted, letting the door swing shut behind her, cutting off Robin's roar of laughter at her indignation.

Now her coop was going to become a reality, Lucie reassured herself with the thought of fresh eggs, and the prospect of selling something other than the random foodstuffs she picked up on her way to and from the mines, Pelican town or that creepy wizard.

The wizard that she was still dubious about; there was a 50/50 chance that the weird liquid he'd convinced her to drink was a very slow acting poison. A very slow acting poison. Nonetheless, she wasn't entering the community centre for sometimes, because even if the thing she'd drank didn't kill her, there were things in that building that she didn't have the guts to face. Not yet. Not while she could distract herself with chickens.


Alex was in the same place.

Lucie faltered on the stone steps by the shop, meeting his gaze, then whirled around, striding back up them and deciding to take the long route home.

"Wait."

Ah, fuck. He was running after her. And running away from him was a step below what Lucie was willing to subject herself to - no matter how badly she wanted to run.

Instead, she folded her arms across her chest, and wheeled around to look at the gridball player.

"What?" She demanded, staring him down. Her mouth pressed itself into a thin line as she held his gaze heavily. "What the hell do you want, Alex?"

Alex dropped his gaze, then looked back at her.

"Look. I'm sorry." Good start, but not good enough. "It was a stupid bet that some of the gridball players… it was a stupid bet. And I shouldn't have done it, but there is no one here to practise with, and I just thought that if I took part in their stupid competition, I could train with them." Alex let the words tumble out, spilling over each other in their hurry to get out. Lucie arched an eyebrow at him, her fingers digging into the flesh of her arm. She waited a moment longer, but it seemed like that was all Alex had to say.

"If you have to prove your worth to someone, they aren't worth your time." Lucie snapped.

"I know that now!" Alex protested.

"That was a fairly shit excuse." Her hands dropped to her sides, and she sighed heavily. "But, fine. I will stop holding it against you, in front of other people at least, if you swear not to have anything to do with people stupid enough to make you do initiation rituals."


Alex was quick to promise Lucie what she wanted, but he was also quick to mean it. He had felt the shame rise in him that evening, even as he was following her outside. At first, he'd hoped that just innocently flirting with her was going to be enough, but when he'd looked back at the few boys that had sat in the Stardrop, it was obvious it wasn't going to be enough. If Shane hadn't shown up, he was going to try to explain to her why he'd been a dick, try to apologise - no. He wouldn't have, and he knew it. He probably would have kept pushing, the need to be accepted by that stupid team was so strong, and he wasn't exactly good at dealing with embarrassment.

The real reason why he'd apologised to Lucie was because he didn't want Haley to know what an arse he'd been.